From the Blog

Potagers 101

Posted on May 14, 2014 //

par CAROLE THIBAUDEAU, La Presse, 13 mai 2014

Comme tout espace vert, le potager combat les îlots de chaleur et charme par sa beauté et ses parfums Photo: Digital / Thinkstock Source: www.lapresse.ca

Comme tout espace vert, le potager combat les îlots de chaleur et charme par sa beauté et ses parfums
Photo: Digital / Thinkstock
Source: www.lapresse.ca

Un ménage montréalais sur deux cultive au moins un petit quelque chose de comestible, plant de tomate sur le balcon, fraises en jardinière ou potager plus complexe.

«On arrive à 51% des ménages ou 42% des Montréalais, suivant l’un ou l’autre des sondages*», précise Gaëlle Janvier, chargée de projet chez Alternatives, une ressource en agriculture urbaine à Montréal.

«Produire localement des denrées est en train d’entrer dans les moeurs, affirme l’agronome Claude Vallée, professeur à l’Institut de technologie agroalimentaire (ITA), campus de Saint-Hyacinthe. C’est beaucoup plus qu’un engouement passager.»

Pour la plupart des jardiniers amateurs, il s’agit d’«un savoir-faire redécouvert, et non pas hérité des parents», observe Marie Eisenman, cofondatrice des Urbainculteurs, qui distribuent les sacs de géotextile Smart Pots.

[Read more...]

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Rooftop gardening in Williams-Sonoma early Summer 2014 catalogue

Posted on May 13, 2014 //

From the Williams-Sonoma early Summer 2014 catalogue.

Tips from Amy Wilson principal designer at The Organic Gardener on how to make the most of a rooftop.

View also: 7 Expert Tips for Rooftop Gardening

 

Williams-Sonoma's "Agrarian Guide" from their early Summer 2014 catalogue

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Students can learn to garden in series of University of Maryland-hosted workshops

Posted on May 13, 2014 //

by MADELEINE LIST, The Diamondback, February 20, 2013

Photo: Diana Daisey Source: www.diamondbackonline.com

Photo: Diana Daisey
Source: www.diamondbackonline.com

Most students have to rely on the dining halls or fast food options for food, but some will soon learn how to grow their own.

All it takes are the right tools and techniques and a little bit of guidance. And that’s where Melissa Avery steps in.

Last Tuesday, nearly 20 students gathered at the Apiary for the first in a series of winter workshops about gardening. The Arboretum and Botanical Garden and a collaboration of the university’s Community Gardens hosted the workshop, called Gardening 101. Avery, master gardener in training, instructed attendees on the basics of gardening, and answered questions from students about how to raise their own plants.

Because winter isn’t the season for planting, people interested in gardening have a few weeks before spring to learn the basics, said Yixin Chen, communications manager for the public health garden and sophomore nutritional science major.

“It’s a great way for people who are interested in gardening to realize, ‘Oh yeah, I can do this.’ Having that knowledge is a big first step,” she said.

Georgia Handforth, a co-manager at the Rooftop Community Garden and a senior communications and sociology major, said it’s beneficial for students to learn how to grow their own plants on the campus.

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Urban farms in Taipei and Tokyo improve office life

Posted on May 13, 2014 //

by WEN-JAY YING, Untapped Cities, February 25, 2014

Winkler Partners Law Firm office houses one of the first rooftop gardens in Taipei Photo: Wen-Jay Ying Source: www.untappedcities.com

Winkler Partners Law Firm office houses one of the first rooftop gardens in Taipei
Photo: Wen-Jay Ying
Source: www.untappedcities.com

Walking out onto the roof of Winkler Partners Law Firm, arugula and strawberry plants frame the silhouette of buildings and mountain tops that make up the Taipei skyline. “Here’s my business card. That side is how I make money, the other is how I spend money,” says Robin Winkler, an American expat and our host for the day. The card states Winkler Partners Law Firm and the flip side reads Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association. His hobby, Wild at Heart, is the first environmental legal defense fund in Taipei, but his day job isn’t too bad either. The Winkler Partners office houses one of the first rooftop gardens in Taipei.

Robin shows us three rainwater tanks that are used to water plants during droughts. In Taiwan, precipitation varies dramatically and rainwater tanks are essential to help with both flooding and dry spells. The rooftop also has a compost toilet, which surprisingly has no smell. The matter is stored in tubs that will eventually be used to feed their plants.

There are passionfruit trees, strawberries plants, leafy greens, and about forty other edible plants and 300 other species that find a home on the law firm’s rooftop garden. Employees are encouraged to help out with the garden. Robin and his colleagues wanted a space to share information about plants and to make the office a place where you could take a break from… well, the office. It’s their alternative to the common workplace culture and a symbol for jobs with dignity. Ideas for a greener Taiwan extend further than their urban oasis, with intentions to share horticulture with the community through composting workshops and youth education programs.

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Govt secretaries inspect rooftop farming – KATHMANDU

Posted on May 8, 2014 //

by Republica, May 3, 2014

To promote the rooftop and terrace farming in Kathmandu city, some government secretaries and high-level officials from concerned government departments have inspected the rooftop farming at some places of the capital.

The inspection team led by secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office Krishna Hari Banskota reached the residences of Litterateur Pawan Alok and Rekha Kandel, a homemaker, where the officials were fascinated to see a wide variety of vegetables growing in clay vessels and plastic drums. They had planted chilies, tomatoes, flowers, guava, mango, pomegranate, oranges, green leaves and fruits and vegetables of many more varieties.

“The rooftop farming we saw left us quite inspired as we witnessed a mausami plant of nearly four inches bearing 12 fruits and a three inches lemon plant producing as many as 100 lemons at times,” said Secretary Banskota.

Executive Chief of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) shared with the monitoring team that additional 500 people were going to receive training on rooftop farming this year alone. The authority has already trained 650 families in the past.

The executive director of the Solid Waste Management Committee Sumitra Amatya added that the elderly people who stay at home all the day have a good time by engaging in rooftop farming that does not require much labor.

The committee every year felicitates the best performers in this category of farming and managing the organic waste on the occasion of World Environment Day.

Secretary Banskota stressed on promoting rooftop farming by introducing separate and clear policies.

The monitoring team later went to the Compost Manure Production Center operated by NEPSEMAC at Chovar and inspected the technique and methodology adopted for producing the organic manure. Secretary of the Ministry of Urban Development Kishor Thapa expressed commitment to promote the organic waste production that helps converting waste into money.

Read the original story

Read also:
KMC to promote rooftop farming
Metropolis to help create 500 rooftop gardens
Elderly couple turn rooftop into their vegetable garden

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A Farm Grows in Brooklyn – on the Roof

Posted on April 29, 2014 //

by MARK J. MILLER, for National Geographic, April 29, 2014

This story is part of National Geographic‘s special eight-month “Future of Food” series.

U.S. cities lead a rooftop-farming movement that’s spreading around the globe.

For most urban dwellers, visiting a working farm requires a journey into the countryside. But in a growing number of world capitals, a farm is just a short elevator ride away—on the roof.

In Singapore, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Montreal as well as several U.S. cities, farms have been built atop multistory buildings.

“Five years ago, there were virtually no rooftop farms,” Steven Peck, founder and president of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, told National Geographic. “Now they are starting to appear across the globe.”

Peck says that as fossil fuels become more expensive and the number of urban dwellers continues to rise, urban farming will help feed the population without increasing the cost and pollution of food transport.

Rooftop farming was born out of the green-roof movement, in which building owners partially or completely cover roofs with vegetation atop special waterproof membranes. Green roofs use plants and flowers to provide insulation, create a habitat for local wildlife, help control runoff, put more oxygen into the atmosphere—and provide a welcome, verdant break from urban drabness.

Rooftop farms take the green-roof concept a step further, with plots that provide fruits and vegetables for local residents and the chance for urban volunteers to become part-time farmers.

[Read more...]

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